White Rhinos Reintroduced to DR Congo National Park

By AFP

Northern white rhinos, like this female shown in Kenya in 2018, have been decimated by poaching © TONY KARUMBA

Sixteen southern white rhinoceroses have been released into DR Congo’s Garamba national park, officials said on Saturday, reintroducing an endangered species that was decimated by poaching.

The last northern white rhino in the park, which lies in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast, was poached in2006.

Accordingtoajointstatementfromtheparkand conservation groups, 16 southern white rhinos have been transported from a private reserve in SouthAfrica to Garamba.

“The return of white rhinos to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a testament to our country’scommitmenttobiodiversityconservation,” Yves Milan Ngangay, the director general of the CongoleseInstitutefortheConservationofNature (ICCN), said in a statement.

TheoperationwasledbytheICCN,conservation NGO African Parks, and Canadian mining firm at-eml/yad https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/whiterhinos-reintroduced-to-dr-congo-national-park/ ar-AA1cnArx

Barrick Gold, which sponsored the rhino move. Established in 1938, Garamba national park is one of Africa’s oldest. But conflict, poaching and chronicinsecurityinvolatileCongohasdecimated its wildlife over the years.

African Parks CEO Peter Fearnhead was also quoted in the statement as saying that efforts to save the northern white rhinos in the park had been “too little, too late”.

“This reintroduction is the start of a process whereby southern white rhino as the closest geneticalternativecanfulfiltheroleofthenorthern white rhino in the landscape,” he said.

Moresouthernwhite rhinoceroses areexpected tobesenttoGarambaNationalParkinthefuture.